"Principalities and powers in heavenly places."

Front matter

" PRINCIPALITIES AND POWERS

IN

HEAVENLY PLACES."

Section I. — Their Existence and Character, ... 13 II. — The power and employment of Evil

Spirits, 22

III. — Satanic Daring, 34

IV. — Satanic Cunning, 46

V. — Satanic Cruelty, 58

VI. — Satanic Activity, 72

VII. — Satanic Knowledge, 81

VilL — The limit of Satanic Power, .... 89

IX. — Satanic Wrath as the end draws nigh, 102

X. — The Doom of Satan and his Angels, . 119

VHL

CONTENTS.

Part II. Of The Holy Angels

Page

Section 1. — Their Existence and Character, . . . 127

II. — Angelic Knowledge and Power, . .. . 136

III. — Angelic Obedience, 150

IV. — Angelic Ministry, . 163

V. — Angelic Sympathy, 182

VI. — Angelic interest in the Jewish people, . 202

VII. — Christ seen of Angels, 218

VIII. — The Apostles a spectacle to Angels, . 239

IX. — Angelic Ministrations in the last days, 251

X. — Angelic Triumph, . 266

Conclusion

Cheist the King of Angels, 272

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

I have great pleasure in complying with a request to prefix a few introductory words to this work. I think it scriptural, seasonable, and practical. No part of divine truth can be neglected without spiritual loss, and it is too evident that the deep and mysterious doctrine of Revelation respecting evil spirits and good angels, has been far too much disregarded in our age. This has arisen — on the one hand from the wide spread of infidel principles, and on the other from the unscriptural, idolatrous, extravagant attention paid to this subject in the Church of Rome, in which the good angels are worshipped, and the evil spirits brought forward to foster delusions. But we gain no solid victory over Popery, by omitting the truths which have been corrupted and abused. Our duty is rather to take forth

X

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

the precious from the vile, and hold fast the simple and plain truth revealed for us and our children ; thus shall we be as God's mouth to his people. Jer. xv. 10.

The friend who wrote this work has been careful not to go beyond the divine record, and to rest every thing here stated on her own personal investigation of the words of the Most High. The reader will find it an edifying and appropriate work, bringing out plainly and perspicuously the scriptural testimony on the subject on which it treats ; and I believe it to be specially suited to meet a want actually existing in the Church of Christ at this time.

There is an advantage in some respects in one mind, simply drawing its sentiments and conclusions from the Scriptures only, without the aid of any other mind ; and this advantage the Reader will have in this work. It gives not that fulness of truth, which the communion of many minds gives, but we obtain by it more of the simplicity and plainness of the Scripture testimony.

Looking at the signs of the times, and the long neglect and unnatural denial of all angelic ministration or spiritual influence, and at the express predictions of false Christs and false prophets, who shall shew signs

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

xi and wonders, insomuch that if it ivere possible they should deceive the very elect, and that when men receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved, for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they shoidd believe a lie, I cannot but think there is a painful prospect of a sudden recoil and religious revulsion from the present unbelief and misbelief, to an unnatural and undistinguishing credulity, when Antichrist shall appear in his latest form, " with signs and lying wonders." I would therefore leave an earnest caution on the minds of my readers — Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God. The Scriptures have forewarned us beforehand, that we may not be led away with the error of the ivicked, and fall from our own stedfastness.

My hope is that this work may tend much to increase the watchfulness, call forth the prayers, strengthen the faith, enliven the hopes, and cheer the hearts of Christians, contending with our mighty spiritual enemies, and succoured by those yet mightier angels who are ministering spirits to the heirs of Salvation. In the increasing intenseness of the conflict, we shall probably soon more urgently need every aid of this kind. May it please God thus to assist many in attaining that final

XII INTRODUCTORY REMARXS.

victory which is sure to every faithful follower of Christ, for " He that is in us is stronger than he that is in the world."

Edward Bickersteth.

Walton, Herts, July 19, 1842,

PART I.

OF EVIL SPIRITS.

SECTION I. — THEIR EXISTENCE AND CHARACTER. ■

The eternal power and godhead of the Most High, are, as St. Paul tells us, invisible things, yet clearly seen and to be understood even of the heathen, by those things which he hath made. Rom. i. 20. The order and harmony of creation, the wonderful manner in which all things are upheld, preserved, perpetuated, or reproduced, appeal to the natural reason and conscience of man, bespeaking some mighty, creative, over-ruling hand, directed by a wisdom and knowledge to which no mortal may attain. And this recognition is all but universal. However false, however distorted, however debased by the most wretched folly, superstition and crime, we find the principle of Deism in some form established throughout the world.

But beyond this, man cannot go ; he sees that God is powerful, and if the desperate wickedness of his own 2 heart did not blind it, he must also perceive that God is good ; giving us rain and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness, clothing the earth with refreshing verdure ; decking it with myriads of glowing flowers ; bestowing on the birds their soft and graceful plumage, bright in lovely dyes, and teaching them to breathe forth music from their cheei ful throats : causing the moon to walk in brightness, the stars to spangle heaven, and peopling even the little brooks that run among the hills with unnumbered forms of beauty that sport in the pure element. So far, man may recognise God, may lovo, fear, and praise him.

But beyond this we have no means of penetrating ; our bodily organs appear to be the sole medium of communication with what exists. What we can see, hear, feel, smell, or taste, is matter of observance, affording evidence on which the mind may rely, and from it we may reason or conjecture to any extent, but can know nothing to bring us acquainted with what lies beyond the range of our senses, we need a special revelation from Him who governs all, and this revelation we possess. Between the two covers of a book that a child may grasp, we find all that is needful or profitable for us to know of the nature, attribute, and works of the Almighty, of his power in creation, his love in redemption, his past dealings with the world, and his future purposes respecting it. By the comparatively dim twilight of his works we may feel after, and haply find him, as the all-presiding governor of the world which he has made : in the bright blaze of his word we behold him distinctly ; and not only Him, but a race of intermediate beings, different from ourselves in that they are not burdened with flesh, possessed of faculties and powers that give them a vast advantage over us, and deeply interested, busily employed about us who are naturally wholly regardless, even when not wholly ignorant concerning them.

Of these mysterious beings we know the number is immensely great ; and that they are divided into two classes : the " elect angels," " holy angels," who are God's obedient ministers and do his pleasure ; and " the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation," (Jude 6,) who are rebels against God, and implacable enemies to man. These last are marshalled under one superior chief, who directs their operations, and maintains, with their assistance, a kingdom upon earth, directly opposed to the government of Christ the rightful King. To support by every possible means, to extend and to strengthen this usurped dominion, to seduce all whom he can, to terrify others, and to thwart, harass, and distress every child of God while sojourning here, is the object of the adversary. His very name, Satan, expresses it ; and the superior power which as a spirit he possesses, becomes effectual in carrying out his most malevolent designs, whenever the omnipotence of God does not interpose to restrain it.

But assertion, on a subject of such tremendous moment to every individual of the human race, will not suffice : we must have proof— such proof as God alone can afford us means of obtaining ; and which where it exists he must also enable us to perceive, for the policy of Satan is wholly opposed to the inquiry. There is nothing he dreads so much as our being " not ignorant of his devices," because he knows that where it is revealed to us, " We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in high places." Eph. vi. 12. In the preceding verse we are also told of a sure defence, and exhorted " Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil." And despite the express declarations of God's word, despite its reiterated warnings, despite even our own sore personal experience of his craft and subtlety, we are prone to overlook not only such testimony to his continual activity and abundant means of warning against us, but the very fact of his existence, so far as it concerns the daily experience, collectively and individually, of the Church of Christ.

Strange as this may sound, it is undeniable : we cannot marvel that where Satan, "the god of this world, hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them," (2 Cor. iv. 4,) he should have taken care also to blind them to his own devices ; that he should have stealthily thrown the bandage across their eyes from behind, so tha't they know not the hand which performed the operation, not even that such operation is performed ; but it is wonderful that he can prevail upon Christian people to banish his name, as they generally do, from their daily converse, and Christian pastors to make only, now and then, a slight incidental reference to it in the pulpit ; and in these days, too, while in every department of our households, in every street of our cities, in Church and State, in cottage and palace, at home and abroad, he is incessantly manifesting his hateful presence, perplexing, seducing, embroiling, dismaying, uprooting, and disorganizing, till the whole framework of society is loosened, and ready upon the first shock to crumble about us.

It cannot be unseasonable, at any period, far less at this juncture, to draw the attention of Christians to a point which God has seen fit to represent as of the most stirring, vital importance to them. The warning needs to be often sounded, " Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." (1 Peter, v. 8.) But in treating of a matter so exceedingly solemn and awful, care must be taken not to run into the opposite danger of saying too much. We must "not go beyond the word of the Lord to speak more nor less." G reat mischief has been done^ and by great men too, by indulging imagination and. building unreal fabrics on the solid foundation of the revealed fact. Scripture alone must speak, in declaring the existence, personality, characters, offices, and positive actings of those spiritual - creatures, which constantly surround us, beginning with Satan and his angels. May He, who by death destroyed him that had the power of death ; He, the seed of the woman, who came to bruise the serpent's head ; He, lb who led captivity captive, and who will bruise Satan under our feet shortly : may He, even the Lord Jesus Christ, bless this humble attempt, preserving both the writer and the reader from all presumptuous sin !

Before proceeding to examine the truth concerning Satan, we must notice the false impressions current both as to his person and employment. We are taught from the nursery to regard him as a hideous, disgusting, and almost ludicrously contemptible object. A black, misshapen, half-human body, with limbs and other appendages belonging to various classes of animals, an excessively frightful, grinning face, and, in short, a preposterous compound of all that is ugly and incongruous, supply the general idea of the " Prince of this world." This fabulous image bears the marks of his own creation, for it is calculated to throw us off our guard by masking his real importance, so that we grow up ashamed of having once been frightened by these pictures of the devil, and count it a mark of matured reason to laugh at the hobgoblin of our childhood. His name, too, is linked with mean and ridiculous associations ; it is denounced as a vulgarism, and when plainly uttered in conversation with a reference to his works, a smile of levity, if not a grave reproof, usually awaits the offender. A variety of nicknames have been applied to him, the substitution of which, for his scriptural title is considered as showing greater respect for the auditors, and greater refinement in the speaker; and he has been so identified with the most flippant, most trifling or profane forms of speech* even among polished gentlemen, that one of the hardest tasks the awakened Christian has to encounter is, to disconnect the name of the devil from such associations, and to dissuade others so offending.

As regards his works, a still more dangerous mistake seems to prevail : he is looked on by the professing world in general as little more than a chimerical personage ; one who, when our Lord was on earth, proved busy, and troublesome to him, but who is mostly in hell, tormenting such as he has got into his power, and rarely, if ever, interfering with the course of this world. Sometimes the most petty annoyances, and vexatious little mistakes are referred to his mischievous arrangements, but more through momentary petulance than any sober conviction : at other times, he is represented as presiding where very extensive injury is done, perhaps directing the campaigns of a Napoleon, or baffling some scheme of universal philanthropy. But to regard him as systematically busying himself in the concerns of individuals, more particularly as influencing, by his artful suggestion, their words and deeds, is looked on as most childishly superstitious. Nay, even among spiritual persons there is a lurking unbelief on this subject, which gives the enemy many an advantage over them. They are loth to believe that when engaged in promoting a good work, Satan is at their right hand, resisting them : that, by his whispered suggestions, their humility is often depressed into cowardice, their zeal quickened to rashness, their confidence urged on to presumption, and their prudence chilled with unbelief. In whatsoever quality the Lord has enabled them to excel, that very excellence Satan will weave' a snare for their feet ; and the snare once laid, he has abundant agencies at work to draw, or drive them into it. Theoretically, perhaps, this is not denied, but point out a living instance of such delusion, and you are presently reproved or frowned into silence.

The following direct testimonies from the scriptures to the existence and character of evil spirits, of whom one distinct chief or leader controls a number of subordinate devils, will establish. our first point: —

•'And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world : he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him, " Rev. xii. 9.

" Ye are of your father the devil, and the Justs of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own : for he is a liar, and the father of it. John viii. 44.

"But some of them, said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils." Luke xi. 15.

" If Satan be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub." v. IS.

" Thou believest that there is one God ; thou doest well ; the devils also believe, and tremble." James ii. 19.

" He said unto him, come out of the man, thou, un clean spirit ; and he asked him, what is thy name ; And he answered, saying, my name is Legion ; for we are many." Mark v. 8, 9.

"Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." Matt. xxv. 41.

" God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell." 2 Peter ii. 4.

These form but a small portion of the inspired declarations which might be adduced under this head, yet they suffice to place the fact beyond a cavil, and our next step is to ascertain the extent of power possessed by Satan ; and the habitual employment of the infernal hosts.

OF EVIL SPIRITS I

Section II. — The Power And Employment Of Evil Spirits

Always bearing in mind that our discoveries of things unseen must be limited by the plain declarations of God's word, we shall find it very difficult to fix the precise bounds of Satan's power and authority. That he possesses vast influence over man in his fallen state is very plain. Our Lord repeatedly calls him "the prince of this world." " Now shall the prince of this world be cast out." John xii. 31. " The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me." xiv. 30. " The prince of this world is judged." xvi. 11. St. Paul speaks of him as " the god of this world." 2 Cor. iv. 4 ; and as "the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." Eph. ii. 2. Considering how deliberately our first parents cast off their allegiance to God at the bidding of Satan, and by so doing, virtually transferred it to him, we may suppose his acquired dominion to be exceedingly great : insomuch that when earth's rightful Lord first came, in great humility, to make reconciliation for that iniquity of his creature, man, Satan, exhibiting all the kingdoms of the world, could utter that fearful boast, " All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them : for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will, I give it." Luke iv. 6. His triumphant vaunt indeed was of short duration ; for He, whom he dared to tempt, speedily cast him out of his earthly possessions, and stripped

THEIR POWER AND EMPLOYMENT.

him too, of a more terrible perogative : for the Son of God became partaker of flesh and blood, " that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." Heb. ii. 14, 15.

But beyond this, there is something that we cannot fathom : Satan is represented to us occasionally in situations far higher than a mere ruler of all the kingdoms of our earth could aspire to. Glympses of a mysterious freedom of access to heavenly places are now and then afforded us ; and though men have undertaken to explain away by a system of types and figures what our enfeebled intellect cannot grasp, still we have the plain declarations of God's word, which it would be our higher wisdom to receive in its obvious meaning ; and where we cannot comprehend, to lay our mouths in the dust, and silently adore.

The first of these instances occurs in the history of Job ; where it is said, " Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan, whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it." Job i. 6, 7, and ii. 1, 2. This occurs twice. Again, Zechariah says, "And he shewed me, Joshua, the high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, 0 Satan ; even the

Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire !" Zech. iii. 1, 2. Perfectly consistent with these views is the language of the Apocalypse ; in a passage bearing so emphatically on our subject, that it must be given entire. "And there was war in heaven : Michael and his angels fought against the dragon ; and the dragon fought, and his angels ; and prevailed not : neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon w7as cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world : he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ : for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before God, day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, and of the sea ; for the Devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time." Rev. xii. 7 — 12. Whatever, and whenever this casting out may be, it does not appear to have taken place in Paul's time ; for in writing to the Ephesians, he says, "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in heavenly places." Eph. vi. 12. So reads the margin of our authorized

THEIH POWER AND E3IPLOYMENT.

version ; and Wiclif, in 1380, translates it, "iVgens spiritual thingis of wickednesse in hewinli thingis." The Geneva version, 1557, has it, "Against spiritual wickednesses which are above;" and the Rhemish, 1582, "Against the spirituals of wickedness in the celestials." In this, as in other instances, a growing dimness of vision on our mysterious and awful subject, has perhaps biased both translators and commentators, to put a gloss on what they cannot easily reconcile with their established systems. There is yet another very remarkable passage belonging to this head. In the book of Daniel, we find a heavenly instructer coming to show the prophet what shall befall his people, the Jews, in the latter days, who thus expresses himself: "The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days ; but lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me." Dan. x. 13. And again he says, "Now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia ; and when I am gone forth, the prince of Grecia shall come

and there is none that holdeth with me in these

things, but Michael your prince." Dan. x. 20, 21. It is not to be supposed that mere mortal kings were thus enabled to resist angels : we can but understand it of a certain authority exercised by these wicked spirits, these principalities, and powers, and rulers of the darkness of this world, over nations that, in the practice of idolatrous abominations sacrificed unto devils, as the Apostle declares. We build no theory on these extraordinary declarations of the Most High : we merely point them out, and endeavour to show how they harmonize with other parts of the same immutable word.

Micaiah's vision is also observable. When adjured by the king to declare the truth of what the Lord had revealed concerning his projected enterprise, he thus disclosed it:— "I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him, on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him. And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also : go forth and do so." 1 Kings xxii. 19 — 22. This is repeated with scarcely any verbal variation in 2 Chron. xviii. 18 — 21. We cannot suppose the prophet of the Lord was at liberty to invent a fiction concerning the inhabitants of heaven ; more especially as his warning was exactly fulfilled : neither can we reasonably suppose that a holy angel would volunteer to become a lying spirit, to mislead a sinner to his final ruin. The doom of Ahab had long been fixed : dogs were to lick his blood in the place where the innocent blood of the murdered Naboth had flowed ; and his obstinate determination of going up to battle to Ramoth Gilead was the means of its fulfilment. Still he was warned : the conscientious Jehosophat would not be satisfied unless a true prophet of the Lord

THEIR POWER AND EMPLOYMENT. 27

was inquired of, after the encouragement given by Ahab's lying flatteries : and the whole device was then laid bare, though the wicked king rejected the merciful intimation, and committing the faithful messenger to prison, rushed open-eyed upon his own destruction.

One more instance of Satanic interference in matters far obove our level, may be adduced. The Apostle Jude, when denouncing those who "speak evil of dignities," adds, "Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, but durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee." Jude 9. Some indeed, identify this passage with that already cited from Zechariah, explaining it of the Jewish polity, or Mosaic law; and would therefore object against our advancing it as on additional testimony ; but for such identification we can see no warrant. It would rather seem to refer to the fact, that the Lord so hid the actual human body of Moses, that "No man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day." Deut. xxxiv. 6.

These occasional glimpses of the invisible world are exceedingly awful : instead of regarding the adversary as a contemptible being, we can scarcely overrate his importance. Possessed of a power that we cannot rightly estimate, and rilled with a malignity the most direful and implacable, he is not a solitary individual waging alone the war of rebellion and ruin : he has hosts unnumbered at command, as we have already shown ; and doubtless he knows too well the value of order and subordination not to avail himself, as a skilful general, of his whole disposable force. What, then, is his employment, and to what object does he bend these superhuman energies and mighty means 1 The answer may be found in any part of the Bible — we trace him by his operations, where he is not actually named ; and we know that so far as it concerns us, all may be summed up in three words, Hostility to man, He sought to deface the work of creation, in its bright morning prime ; and to a sad extent he succeeded : the work of redemption was undertaken, through the tender mercies of God, to repair that deadly breach ; and to resist it is the perpetual aim of Satan and his angels. Alike to him is the task to impede a great national movement towards Christ, and to lure a little child from the way of righteousness. In either case he puts forth his subtle power, and never loses sight of the object. Foreknowledge he does not possess : that is the prerogative of Deity^ alone ; but his calculations must be wonderfully accurate, considering that to the high angelic faculties of his nature, he adds the experience of some six thousand years of intimate concern in the affairs of men : and a perfect acquaintance with all knowledge and all mysteries, attainable by created intelligence. Before him are spread out all the phenomena of nature : the stars in their courses, the ocean in its depths, the earth in all her hidden recesses, and all the complicated operations of her vast elemental laboratory, are visible to him. Long ere the shadow of a cloud encroaches on the unruffled sky bounded by our horizon, he perceives the coming storm, and prepares to